Unity

Take Me In






The first book of Corinthians, verse 3:16 says, "Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit."  The Jewish temple there were three courts: the outer court, the inner court, and the Holy of holies.  Knowing this is key to the rest here.

Our bodies are like the outer court. The inner court is like our mind, our will and our emotions. But inside of us is the Holy of holies where the Spirit of G-d dwells. The Holy Spirit dwells inside our spirit. So inside you and inside me is the Holy of holies. The Holy of holies is in you. Verse 17 of that chapter says,  "The temple of G-d is holy, and that temple is what you are." That will help your self-image to know the Holy of holies is in you and in me.

How then do we keep our temples cleansed? Once we’ve accepted Christ the blood of Christ cleanses us. How then do we keep our temples cleansed? We do it by faith. By letting G-d raise us up again.
1 John 1:9 is a verse I like to call "the Christian’s bar of soap."  It says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The last time you washed your hands when they were really dirty, did you stand over the sink and say, “Where did the dirt go, I’m so worried about it?” No you didn’t. You accepted by faith that the dirt went down the drain. You never gave it a second thought. That is what we need to do. If we confess our sins, He is faithful, G-d is faithful and will not lie, He is just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We need to believe He has forgiven us even if we don’t see or feel it.

The Holy Spirit always points us to Christ. He always points us to forgiveness, to the cross and to the blood of Christ. He always points us to no condemnation. Why? Because Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Yeshua Ha'Meshiach (Jesus Christ)."
But what does Satan do? He wants to rob you of the peace G-d says is yours. Satan tries to make you look back and think about your own sin. You think about those things and they go across your mind like a video. What we need to do is bring those sins under the cross and say,  "Lord Jesus this just proves that I need a Savior. Lord, thank you that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin." Think about your sins through the cross and through the blood of Christ, and you will have G-d's peace. Don’t sit and dwell on old sins. Believe G-d’s forgiveness, though because he did, and will supersede your past with righteousness.

Are You Talkin' To Me?

Luke 18:9, "And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.” I realized I viewed others in a wrong fashion, in contempt, every day.

This is the parable Yeshua told:
"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee (self-righteous, arrogant religious leaders in Yeshuas' day) and the other a tax collector (often corrupt, over-taxing people, hated by most.) The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, 'G-d I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, 'G-d be merciful to me, the sinner.'"
Yeshua explained the parable saying, "I tell you this man (the man who said ‘G-d be merciful to me the sinner’) went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

When I read this I said, “Oh Lord, I’m being like the Pharisees. I hate this. I’m viewing this person with contempt.” I realized that I needed to look at my own heart. As I began to look at my own heart, I saw jealousy, lack of love, pride, anger, judging, pointing my finger. I then looked at Galatians 5:16-23. "But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh…The fruit (or deeds) of the flesh are evident which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, outburst of anger, jealousy, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these…But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, against such things there is no law."

Sometimes we look things like a Christmas naughty and nice list, and always end up on the naughty list. We fail to look at ourselves in that list list and say, “How loving am I being? How kind am I being? How faithful am I being? How gentle am I being?” We tend to measure ourselves by the sins instead of measuring ourselves by the fruit of the Spirit.  It's always easy to believe the bad things that people throw at you every day, in the office, at home, wherever, than the compliments, the good things.  Most of the time if we hear anything good we turn around again because we just cannot believe this world has any good in it, and the truth says we are the body and the Holy of Holies.

I feel it is also right to look at 1 Peter 3:8-9 now, "To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult."

Right there we are told "filling the gap" between you and the Holy Sprit has nothing at all to do with fleshly deeds and works accomplished.

I felt this person had done evil things to me, had done insulting things to me. But after it says, “not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult," it says, "but giving a blessing instead, for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing."

The Holy Spirit will always be faithful to show us where we are not like Yeshua Ha'Meshiach. He is always faithful to show me where I am not like Christ. As we read G-d’s Word and ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in ways that are pleasing to him, he will produce more and more soiling of in our lives the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control."

Yeshua said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love…These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:9,11)